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Meet Our New CEO

“Our potential lies not only in our diversity, but in the power of our community to act as one in service of our mission. Together, our stories of an Internet with people at its heart offer a unifying message for all the world."

Issues

Access

At the Internet Society, we believe the Internet can help improve the quality of your life and the lives of people everywhere. Too ambitious? We think it’s possible – but only with the help of our partners, Chapters, and individual members.
Together we work to promote policies that sustain an Internet that’s open and has a universally accessible platform for innovation, creativity, and economic opportunity.

Community Networks

Development

Internet development is about people. Shared knowledge and collaborative relationships are key drivers of successful Internet growth, not technology alone. The Internet Society works to foster growth and access to technology by bringing information, training, and partnerships to people and communities across the globe.

Domain Name System (DNS)

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a global database that translates domain names (such as www.internetsociety.org) to Internet addresses that are used by computers to talk to each other. DNS also provides other information about domain names, such as mail services.

Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC)

DNSSEC allows users to have more confidence in their online activities. DNSSEC acts like tamper-proof packaging for domain name data, helping to ensure that you are communicating with the correct website or service. DNSSEC also provides us with a platform for future innovations to enhance user confidence in Internet-based services.

Economy

Encryption

The Internet Society believes that end-to-end encryption should be the norm for all Internet traffic. Encryption is not only an important additional step of ongoing efforts by the technical community to address the important issue of pervasive monitoring, but also a critical technical building block for online trust.

Human Rights

The Internet Society believes that people deserve to have their rights protected on the Internet as well as offline. We believe in the power of the Internet to bring all of us closer together. Whether people use the Internet to create powerful apps, find information, buy and sell things, or even just stay in touch with their family and friends — it’s important we all have the freedom to do any of these of things online.

Identity

The Internet Society works in both the technical and policy arenas, supporting the development of tools and policies that empower people to manage their online identities and the 'digital footprint' they leave behind.

Internet Governance

Internet of Things (IoT)

Today billions of devices are connected to the Internet in what we call the "Internet of Things" or "IoT". These devices are already transforming our lives, but as they do, there are also serious challenges that must be addressed to maximize the potential benefits.

IPv6

The world officially ran out of the 4.3 billion available IPv4 addresses in February 2011. Yet, hundreds of millions of people are still to come online, many of whom will do so in the next few years. IPv6 is what will make this possible, providing enough addresses for everyone and all of their various devices.

Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS)

Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) is a global initiative, supported by the Internet Society, to work with operators, enterprises, and policymakers to implement crucial fixes needed to reduce the most common routing threats.

Open Internet Standards

The Internet is fundamentally based on the existence of open, non-proprietary standards. They are key to allowing devices, services, and applications to work together across a wide and dispersed network of networks.

Privacy

Public Policy

Our work is based upon our fundamental belief that the Internet is for everyone. In pursuing our objectives, we operate collaboratively and inclusively, working with governments, national and international organizations, civil society, the private sector, and other parties to reach decisions about the Internet that conform to our core values.

Securing Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

Security

The Internet must remain stable, secure, and resilient. All stakeholders must collaborate and share responsibility to ensure this – without undermining the global architecture of the Internet or curtailing internationally recognized human rights.

Technology

The Internet Society is focused on ensuring that a healthy, sustainable Internet is available to everyone – today and for the next billion users. Technology-focused programs are a vital component of the Internet Society’s mission. We work to facilitate the open development of standards, protocols, and administration, and to ensure a robust, secure technical infrastructure.

Transport Layer Security (TLS)

Trust

The Internet Society works to ensure that trust is a primary design element at every layer of the Internet’s architecture, and in some cases works to redesign or improve existing elements to meet emerging requirements.

Women In Tech

From Yvonne Marie Andrés’s early laying of groundwork for online education to Radia Perlman’s impact on how how networks move data to Kanchana Kanchanasut’s and Dorcas Muthoni’s work to connect the global south, the Internet would not be what it is today without the brilliance of women. Celebrate some of the women around the world making the Internet a safer and more trusted place.

Emerging Issues

Beyond the issues above, the Internet Society monitors many emerging topics and technologies. Our Global Internet Report for 2017, "Paths to our Digital Future", outlines many new topics. For a few issues where we have more content, we have opened up separate areas here on our site.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is a technology that is already impacting how users interact with, and are affected by the Internet. In the near future, its impact is likely to only continue to grow. AI has the potential to vastly change the way that humans interact, not only with the digital world, but also with each other, through their work and through other socioeconomic institutions – for better or for worse.

Blockchain

Blockchain technology enables distributed public ledgers that hold immutable data in a secure and encrypted way and ensure that transactions can never be altered. While Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the most popular examples of blockchain usage, this "distributed ledger technology" (DLT) is finding a broad range of uses. Data storage, financial transactions, real estate, asset management and many more uses are being explored.

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